[apologies for doubles...]

Paul's work is pretty interesting and there is a potential extension for CS in this....

David

From: Paul Vickers <paul.vickers@northumbria.ac.uk>

Date: 26 April 2012 4:43:04 AM AEST

...

Northumbria University (based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the north-east of
England) will be shortly advertising a range of fully-funded PhD
studentships. Among them is one on program sonification to be supervised by
me. The deadline for applications is 27 APRIL

The competition for the studentships will be strong and so applicants should
possess (or be expecting to possess) either:
- a first class honours degree (or equivalent) or
- an upper-second class honours degree PLUS an MSc with distinction (or
equivalent).

Please bring this to the attention of anyone you think might be interested
in this opportunity.

Below are details of the project and eligibility requirements.

Project
-------
Sonification (Auditory Visualization) of Programming Environments

Project Description
-------------------
Computers now offer multiple media output facilities which are able to
provide information simultaneously in both the auditory and visual channels.
Whilst the visual channel has been extensively developed (for example GUI’s
and Virtual Reality), the auditory channel is largely unexplored. This is
unfortunate for four reasons:
·      The auditory sense is an important one used extensively in everyday
life;
·      Visual interfaces are now very crowded and are often confusing;
·      Auditory output offers parallelism and a “free hands” approach;
·      For visually impaired users, exploitation of the auditory channel is
essential.

The first three reasons encourage combination of output from both channels
to provide richer and more relevant information for users in complex
situations where the visual medium is stretched. The fourth reason arises
from the ubiquitous nature of the Graphical User Interface which has
severely challenged the visually impaired.

This project will investigate the use of audio as a communication medium in
programming tasks (especially in debugging) using a technique called program
sonification (the mapping of program data and events to sound). Preliminary
research has shown that this approach is promising and we wish to further
explore its potential.

The first stage of the work will be a critical review of the existing
techniques and tools available (particularly model-based sonification) and
the specification of a full program sonification system for an object
oriented language (a prototype system for the sonification of a procedural
language already exists and this could be further developed).
The resultant techniques and tools will be evaluated in terms of overall
efficacy, comparisons with traditional visual tools and applicability of
sonification to the general programming population.

Candidates for this project should have interests in the areas of computer
music/digital audio, programming, and human-computer interaction.
Additionally, there is scope for developing and evaluating this technology
as an assistive technology for visually-impaired users.

Publications by supervisors relevant to this project
----------------------------------------------------
1. Paul Vickers. Ways of listening and modes of being: Electroacoustic
auditory display. Journal of Sonic Studies, (Accepted for publication),
2012.

2. Stephen Barrass and Paul Vickers. Sonification design and aesthetics. In
Thomas Hermann, Andrew D. Hunt, and John Neuhoff, editors, The Sonification
Handbook, pages 145–172. Logos Verlag, Berlin, 2011. ISBN 978-3-8325-2819-5.

3. Paul Vickers. Sonification for process monitoring. In Thomas Hermann,
Andrew D. Hunt, and John Neuhoff, editors, The Sonification Handbook, pages
455–492. Logos Verlag, Berlin, 2011. ISBN 978-3-8325-2819-5.

4. Paul Vickers and James L. Alty. The well-tempered compiler: The
aesthetics of program auralization. In Paul A. Fishwick, editor, Aesthetic
Computing, chapter 17, pages 335–354. MIT Press, Boston, MA, 2006. ISBN
0-262-06250-X. URL http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?
ttype=2&tid=10919.

5. Paul Vickers. How to Think like a Programmer: Program Design Solutions
for the Bewildered. Cengage Learning/Course Technology, 2009. ISBN
978-1-84480-903-5

6. Paul Vickers and Bennett Hogg. Sonification abstraite/sonification
concrète: An ‘aesthetic perspective space’ for classifying auditory displays
in the ars musica domain. In Tony Stockman, Louise Valgerdur Nickerson,
Christopher Frauenberger, Alistair D. N. Edwards, and Derek Brock, editors,
ICAD 2006 - The 12th Meeting of the International Conference on Auditory
Display, pages 210–216, London, UK, 20–23 June 2006. ISBN 0-902-23821-3
(CDROM) ISBN 0-902-23820-5 (online).

7.  Paul Vickers and James L. Alty. Siren songs and swan songs: Debugging
with music. Communications of the ACM, 46(7):86–92, 2003. URL
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm? doid=792704.792734.

Funding Notes
-------------
The studentship includes a full stipend, paid for three years at RCUK rates
(in 2011/12 this was 13,590 pa, figure for 2012/13 to be confirmed) and
fees.

Eligibility
-----------
Applicants should hold a first or upper second class honours degree (in a
relevant subject) from a British higher education institution, or
equivalent. Students who are not UK/EU residents are eligible to apply,
provided they hold the relevant academic qualifications, together with an
IELTS score of at least 6.5.

How to Apply
-------------
You should apply using the University’s Research Application Form. The
Northumbria Research Studentship Terms and Conditions, together with the
Application Form, will be available soon on our website:
http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/researchstudentships


Please get in touch if you want to discuss this.

Regards

Paul Vickers
--
____________________________________
Dr P. Vickers BSc PhD CEng MIET FHEA
Reader in Human-Computer Interaction

School of Computing, Engineering, & Information Sciences
Northumbria University
Pandon Building, Camden Street
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
NE2 1XE

Tel +44 (0)191 243-7614
e-mail: paul.vickers@northumbria.ac.uk
web: www.paulvickers.com/northumbria

Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of
Northumbria University.

...
_____________________________________________

Dr David Worrall
Adjunct Research Fellow, Australian National University
david.worrall@anu.edu.au
Board Member, International Community for Auditory Display
Regional Editor, Organised Sound (CUP) 
IT Projects, Music Council of Australia 
worrall.avatar.com.au	sonification.com.au
mca.org.au			musicforum.org.au
T : +61 (0)2 61.61.95.22	M: +61 (0)4.02.28.36.90

________________________________________________

Dr David Worrall.

- Experimental Polymedia:   worrall.avatar.com.au

- Sonification: www.sonification.com.au

- Education for Financial Independence: www.mindthemarkets.com.au